planing,starups,stories

Planning, Startups, Stories
How Do I Spell Trivial?
I apologize. It's the schoolteacher in me. I'm annoying and old fashioned. It's a character flaw. But when somebody emails me and writes
"I have obtained legal advise from a patent professional..."
And, later on,
...how hard will it be to get some capitol investors to hear me out?
That puts me off. It's advice, not advise. It's capital, not capitol. Is it just me? I can't help noticing. I was raised that way. When I make spelling mistakes, it's almost always by accident and I want to be corrected (thanks Steve).
I want to answer flippantly. Certainly it will be easier to get those investors to listen to you than to read your writing.
Sigh ... sorry, I couldn't help it.
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January 22, 2008 in Writing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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C'est La Vie. You Never Can Tell
The title line is from one of my favorite Chuck Berry songs (I hope he's a relative, but I don't know) (I like the Emmy Lou Harris version too):
C'est la vie say the old folks. It goes to show you never can tell.
So I'm doing the old folks line today. Here's a local club that looks either dead or dying. I wonder, as I go by, what their story might be, with the darkened windows and apparently empty space. It was a brewery restaurant near our Palo Alto Software office for a few years, we lunched there often, but that died. Before that it was an auto dealership, but that died. Bad luck? Bad location? Bad management? It seemed like a good location with a hitch in parking, and it seemed like a good restaurant. Then, for several years now, it seemed like dead or dying.
Then I discover (thanks Chelle) that it's actually a very successful nightclub haunt. Cool, I guess; I like surprises. But it also means I'm not very good at guessing who's doing okay. Take a look at the place:
No signage, dark windows. Who'd think it was really hopping? I guess you can tell I don't get out much at night. I thought it was always empty. But I discover that it's successful and trendy. Last month the local Eugene Register Guard reported:
"Crowds are starting to understand the Indigo District’s new role in the music scene. Teenagers have gone there to bounce around to the frenetic hip-hop of Pigeon John or sit quietly in the corner to listen to David Bazan. The mix of fans is reminiscent of the WOW Hall, although the Indigo is not quite as crowded, at least not yet."
Okay, I stand corrected. Maybe anonymity during the day leads to success at night. I've posted recently on the importance of knowing who isn't your target market. Maybe they needed to make it clear that I'm definitely not their target market.
Like I say, I like surprises. Do things your own way, be different, and you have the essence of strategy. Or, as I've written elsewhere, simply, strategy is focus. Consider this quote, from the Eugene Weekly:
[Owner Justin] Gibbs acknowledges that the legacy of the Indigo District involves a rather schizophrenic past. When the bar first opened its heavy, wooden doors, the menu advertised a business lunch, gourmet coffee and bar food served long into the night, well after the liquor stopped flowing.
"The new direction has refined the scope of what we're trying to do," he explains. "When we first started, it was like 'It's a restaurant, it's a bar, it's a music venue, it's an Internet café.' We were going all day every day with just me managing. And as much as I loved being a restaurateur, it happened at the expense of doing music. That's my primary passion."
So success involved more focus. Ironically, keeping me and people like me out of the loop probably helped. Quoting the weekly again:
In the last year, the Indigo District has been keeping primarily evening hours, hosting music regularly, throwing raging dance parties and "doing a few things well," as Gibbs would say. After trying out so many types of business plans and suffering some low points, he and his staff are excited to settle into being "a music venue that serves food and drinks and does club nights."
"We had some growing pains in the last year. 2006 was an awkward point between being a new bar and an established bar. We had to adjust our vision."
This new vision will capitalize on what Gibbs refers to as the "cross-pollination between hip hop, rock and electronic" emerging in the independent music scene. He hopes that by bringing bands who blend the best of the best musically, the Indigo District will, by extension, provide the optimal nightlife experience for those committed to keeping the funk alive in Eugene.
Which is obviously working. What is it, stealth marketing? I go by there a lot, I read the local paper every day, but I hadn't seen it. The target market, however, had seen it. C'est la Vie.
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January 22, 2008 in Business Stories, Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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All About Leadership
I was at an interesting event Saturday. The Annual Nonprofit Organization Board Training organized by Financial Stewardship Resources. More than 500 people, almost all of them volunteers, almost all of them running nonprofits, gathering together on a cold and gray Saturday in Corvallis, OR, to learn about nonprofit taxation, leadership, better management, better planning, incorporating a new generation, and so on.
That's an interesting group. Most of them over 40, dressed comfortably, eager to learn. Very few of them are paid to come. Most of them pay to come. Most were from Oregon, but a lot of other states, and a couple of other countries, were represented. I was with the organizers when they scrambled to find the translator they'd arranged for Polish/English.
I think we all know we're in tough economic times, and that of course flows over to nonprofits. But that was a pretty good group. What's important, I think, aside from any single message, is that they were there.
I felt my plan-as-you-go business plan talk went very well. They got it. It's not just the plan, it's planning: start with a review schedule, make sure you have focus, metrics, specifics of who-what-when, and build it over strategy. Form follows function.
John Blount, keynote speaker, was recently selected as one of the 17 members of the International Rotary board of directors. He's also a dentist, lives in Sebastopol, CA, and does a pretty good talk on leadership. He sandwiched his talk around a short video about John Kennedy and NASA and the moon shot in the 1960s. I've searched the web for "It's All About Leadership," and I've come up with a lot of hits, but not that video. Too bad. That's a great example. John put leadership into three words: bold, competent, creative. I'm taking the liberty to change bold to courage, for alliteration's sake, and add my own words as explanation.
1. Courage: as in having the courage to stick your neck out for a decision, put your ideas on the line, take a stand. Courage to raise your voice in a crowd.
2. Competence: Yes, I know, as we grow up in the world of adults, it's surprising to discover how few people are truly competent. John shared a study about what people want in their dentist. Competence. That's what people want in their leaders too. What a temptation to get into politics. But no, never mind.
3. Creativity: Are leaders creative? Maybe. Creativity is about focus, perspective, looking at things from the right position, and often from a new position, one that others couldn't think of. John mentioned the importance of quantity of ideas, more than quality. That's an important concept.
Finally, one of several amusing quotes in his warmup was this quote from a baseball player named Larry Anderson. I'd never heard of him, or this quote, but:
If at first you don't succeed, failure may be your thing.
And Steve Lange, a good editor, read my early version of this post (which changed a lot with this version) and tipped me off to Demotivators.com, which has some posters based on similar sentiments.
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January 22, 2008 in Entrepreneurship | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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Why My New Kindle is Like the Treadmill in the Basement
I'm getting used to my new Amazon Kindle. It finally arrived while I was gone the second week in January, and was waiting for me when I returned. So far it's serving mainly as a reminder that I'm not getting as much time as I'd like to read. It's functioning sort of like an unused exercise machine. I had a treadmill in the basement for several years. I'd go by it going in and out of the garage, each time remembering that I should get more exercise. But I didn't get more exercise.
Aside from that rather personal note, which obviously isn't the Kindle's fault, my initial surprises were pleasant:
1. It's much smaller and slimmer than it looks like in the pictures. Even the pictures with the kindle in hand make it look bigger and clumsier than it really is.
2. It really is easy on the eyes, quite comfortable even for 60-year-old eyes. The black type on gray (almost white) background is crisp and clear. I know I can adjust the type to make it more comfortable, but I'm still in the default.
3. The wireless connection to Amazon.com is brilliant. It's easy to use, intuitive, a great implementation of hardware and software.
4. Most of the books available offer a first chapter free, so you can read a few pages before you decide whether or not you want to buy. I love this feature, which Amazon hasn't advertised. I'm afraid I've bought a lot of books that disappointed me, and I'm curious, so this is a very useful feature.
5. Pricing gives me some advantage in buying Kindle vs. buying regular books. Topping every book off at $9.95, for example.
And, of course, some minor disappointments:
1. Some of those first chapters aren't really first chapters; they're like tables of contents. You don't really get to read and decide. That's what I found on several books, all of which were non-fiction, related to business planning. (Teri Epperly at Palo Alto Software is working with me to get my Hurdle:the Book on Business Planning into Kindle format; we're going to make sure our first chapter is really the first chapter.
2. This is a product that really could have used Apple-level design. While it is really small and easy to carry, the buttons and tabs and such are clunky, old-fashioned. No iPod designers on this project. I keep pushing next page and previous page buttons that I didn't want to push.
3. Not Amazon's fault, but it occurs to me that the Kindle will have to power off during takeoff and landing on commercial flights. That's a bummer. One of the best advantages of books is you can read them when you can't do anything else, like during those airline moments. Can't we establish that having the Kindle on, with its super low power and static technology, won't crash the plane?
Finally, about pricing:
I would immediately buy a Kindle for two or three people in my family if it were priced at $199 instead of $399. The price strikes me as out of whack, sort of like that initial iPhone $600 price that went down a couple of months later. It's an eBook reader, not a PDA, not a computer.
Still, there is something fundamental about keeping prices related to demand. Amazon couldn't meet all the demand they had for early Kindle buyers. I ordered mine in early December, and I had to wait until early January. That's not a time to lower prices.
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January 21, 2008 in Current Affairs, Technology, Writing | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
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Back to the Mac
I'm writing this using Mars Edit on a new iMac, which has just replaced my Windows Media computer as my main system on my home desktop. This is after about 12 years on Windows, which, in turn, came after about 10 years with a Mac as my main computer.
I had one of those original Macintosh units within a month of its introduction, and it became my main system when they finally had hard drives some time in 1985. I wrote my second book, which was published by McGraw-Hill Microtext, on a Mac; and laid it out using very early desktop publishing techniques and an Apple Laserwriter.
AppleImac1.png I stayed with Macs as the main system, upgrading every so often, until 1994. I moved to Windows as we developed Business Plan Pro for Windows, in 1994.
As our business moved heavily over to the Windows side, so did I, with my main computers. The Macs stayed around for a while, but our home was without Macs until about a year ago when I installed an old Mac mini.
In Palo Alto Software, meanwhile, as the Windows market took over we tried to continue with Macs, but it became so much more drag than sales justified that we finally, in 2003, dropped the Mac products. Sadly, the market wasn't there. We embarked on projects to port Business Plan Pro to Mac three times in the 12 years since the first version, but the numbers were just impossible to make -- 10X development costs for 1/100 the sales just don't work, no matter how much I like the Mac.
However, times are changing. Our COO has a Mac laptop. One of our best programmers works on a Mac using Windows via Parallels. And now I, president and founder, have a new iMac as my main system at home.
Since it's been 12 years, I realize I'll have a long move-in time for the new iMac. I mean missing the things I'm used to, like Windows Live Writer, SnagIt screen capture, Roboform. On the good side, I've gotten used to iTunes because of my iPods and iPhone, so that will help. And Firefox seems like a familiar friend too.
If you know me and Palo Alto Software, you might wonder how far we are from yet another attempt at a Mac version of Business Plan Pro. We're not supposed to say. You know the paraphrased old saying, "we announce no software before it's time."
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January 20, 2008 in Technology | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
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Essential Business Planning for Nonprofits
I believe that nonprofits and social enterprises need good business planning as much or more than the rest of us. The old mentality that left the nonprofits in their own world, unconcerned with business-like things like planning and performance, are over. Happily, most of the people I talk to in that world agree with me. The nonprofits want and need planning for the same reasons the rest of us do: develop and implement long-term strategy. Manage towards long-term objectives. Develop the right metrics. Set down tracks you can review and revise. Develop accountability. Control your destiny. Be proactive.
Just a few years ago I felt the nonprofits wanted to live in their own world. The language of standard business planning -- sales, for example, and profits, and return on investment, similar business terms -- was uncomfortable to them. It made me feel cynical when we'd take the standard terms in Business Plan Pro and mask them with appropriate equivalents. Sales became funding. Profit became surplus, and loss was deficit.
Change the vocabulary, but not the core. The core is essentially the same. It's almost (with my apology to zealots) like dealing with religions, in which different groups apply different words to the same thing. We want to dress our similar realities in our own specific costumes. Whoops, that may be more than I want to take on in this post. So, back to nonprofits. Or, as Gilda Radner would say, "never mind."
Tomorrow I'll be presenting Essentials of Business Planning for Nonprofits at the Annual Nonprofit Organization Board Training organized by Financial Stewardship Resources. That's at the LaSells Stewart Center on campus at Oregon State University. The occasion has me thinking about how the Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan fundamentals apply very well to planning a nonprofit organization.
Happily, in the last few years there's been a steady increase in the sense of metrics and accountability in the world of nonprofits. At least that's what I'm seeing, that's what reaches me in my travels. I certainly don't claim any expertise on the subject of nonprofits, but in my work on business planning, I do get exposed to the growing trend for social enterprises and what feels like steadily increasing demand for accountability and metrics in nonprofits. If I'm wrong on that, please tell me.
One result of this, it seems, is steadily increasing interest in doing the business planning better.
If you're interested, you're welcome to download my presentation handouts. I'll be doing my presentation twice, each one an hour and 10 minutes. I plan to summarize the basic principles of plan-as-you-go business planning, with only very slight modifications for application in nonprofits.
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January 18, 2008 in Business Planning, Current Affairs, Nonprofits | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

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Separate the Plan from its Information Background and Support
I've been focusing lately on the difference between your core business plan and the information and analysis and presentation additions that are really dressing, not plan. Too many people assume that a business plan necessarily includes background and supporting information. In fact, the plan itself is your strategy and the concrete steps and specifics you need to run the business. This is one of the core concepts in The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan book that I'm now writing.
Consider this: every business needs to plan strategy and who does what, when, how much it costs, how much it brings in, and how much money is in the bank. That's absolutely essential for everybody. That's also what a plan has to include.
The plan should meet the business needs. Not all businesses need to do research and analysis on markets, the industry, the competition, and related topics as they develop their plan. Those that do know who they are. Also, perhaps more important, those that don't want or need to do this extensive analysis shouldn't confuse that with the plan itself.
You might be running or growing or starting your own one-person business. You feel very comfortable about knowing your customers and your market and you've got a strategy. Why are you writing all this down, formalizing it, making a big project that you don't really need? No good reason. Planning is about the decisions it causes, it's not about showing off your knowledge.
Example: you're doing a new coffee roasting business. It's just you and your spouse, and a close family friend who is also investing. You want to develop your strategy and cash flow projections and who does what, and you want to track progress against goals, so you do need a plan. But it's not going to be a formal business plan document with a heavy market analysis and competitive analysis. It's going to stay on your computer. You may or may not do a special research and analysis project for this plan, but either way, you're comfortable with your sense of the market and the strategy you're developing.
So if you don't have to do the formal plan, because you're not required to by the investor or the bank, then don't. And when you do want to do the plan, because things are changing (maybe you're entering a contest, or looking for an investor, or the bank asks for it), then you take the next step of developing the document with all the supporting information.
Some businesses need to explain and present the background information to investors, bankers, directors, members of the management team, or others. In that case, by all means, put it into your business plan document, and/or your presentation, summary, elevator speech, or whatever. But keep in mind that it's dressing.
The heart of the plan is its strategy, and no matter which kind of plan output you're using you still need to understand who you're selling to, what you're selling, why they buy, how they know about you, and how you're different from other offerings. You can write that down, put it in slides, talk it through with others, or keep it in your head, but you really have to understand where and how you fit. It's a combination of your identity, your market, and your business offering.
The flesh and bones of the plan are its review schedule, metrics, responsibility assignments, dates, deadlines, budgets, and financial forecasts. You need those as much as you need anything. It isn't necessarily a document, or a presentation, or a speech, or a summary; it's what you're doing and what's supposed to happen.
The output of that might vary. Its actual physical existence might be as simple as thoughts in your head, at the beginning, and -- I really hope -- quickly becomes a collection of words and pictures and numbers you keep on your computer.
You do what the business needs: no more, no less.
And you never run a business without a plan, and you never think you have a plan unless you have a plan review schedule of meetings set up and you follow through with it, plus realistic metrics, a cash flow plan, and accountability.